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Friend,
From Shavuot in May to the High Holy Days this fall, Bend the
Arc is releasing a video series that highlights our visions of
community safety beyond the limits of our fears. Today we’re
sharing a new
episode of Your Safety Is My Safety featuring Yehudah
Webster.
Yehudah is a spiritual activist, community organizer, and Program
Director and faculty at Inside Out Wisdom and Action Project. His work
equips communities with the spiritual tools to subvert racism and
supports collective organizing, advocacy, and direct service to
dismantle racism systemically.
In
his video, Yehudah shares his vision of the world to come:
“My vision for safety requires that we step into responsibility
for the well-being and growth of others, as well as for ourselves and
even for opponents … And at its foundation, it looks like maintaining
a connection with Hashem, the fount of living water, to be accountable
to values greater than ourselves and each other.”
—
Yehudah
We need that message more than ever. The front page of today’s New
York Times shares the results of their first 2024 campaign poll, with
Trump leading the Republican field by a landslide. While fear-based
politics is clearly still potent, American Jews and the majority of
Americans reject the MAGA vision for our country. The question
our society faces is: will we choose bans, raids, and walls or a
caring multiracial democracy?
This fall, Bend the Arc will continue to organize American Jews,
and our country at large, to invest in community-based care and safety
and divest from carceral systems like policing and prisons. From our
synagogues to Congress, we’re building a movement of communities
targeted by antisemitism, anti-Black racism, and MAGA politics to
fight for the joyful future we all deserve.
Your
Safety is My Safety is one place we’re sharing visions of the world to
come. We hope you’ll watch and share videos from Yehuda, Enzi, Rachèl,
and more here.
You can support these videos, and our local, state, and federal
policy fights to come, with
a donation here.
In solidarity,
The Bend the Arc team
PS: Last week we marked Tisha B'Av by sharing 40
Days of Teshuva, a short film featuring Yehudah and the 40-day
public action he led after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Tisha B’Av is a time to face the grief of our broken world. What do
we do the next day when we need to rebuild? Who do we reach for? What
are our commitments? Your
Safety is My Safety explores these questions and more here.
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